[RE-wrenches] sol ark reliability question

Chris Sparadeo sparadeo.chris at gmail.com
Tue Oct 4 16:04:57 PDT 2022


Hi Jay,

We have 50+ Sol Ark’s deployed and have just recently RMA’d our first unit
for a failed grid input relay. Only failure so far and tech support was
awesome throughout the process.

I have been very impressed with the 15K unit. We have dropped some serious
inductive motor loads on it with no issue.

My understanding is that the MCU glitch with paralleled units was a known
issue with the 12K, and has since been resolved.

Kindly,

Chris

On Fri, Sep 30, 2022 at 12:10 PM Jerry Shafer via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> Ray. Understand but loose connections can be any product and
> troubleshooting loose intermittent issues are the hardest to correct
> J
> Funtimes
>
> On Fri, Sep 30, 2022, 9:03 AM Ray Walters via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> One thing I can say:  trouble shooting problems over the phone has its
>> limitations.  I had a customer issue with a system we hadn't installed that
>> was quite vexing.  Turned out to be a loose main DC connection to the
>> inverter.  Bizarre behavior as the connection heated up and the resistance
>> varied.
>>
>> Ray Walters
>>
>> On 9/30/2022 6:57 AM, Jay via RE-wrenches wrote:
>>
>> Hi all and thanks for the input.
>>
>> I guess he’s just been unlucky with the problems ( firmware upgrade
>> switching to 50hz) and possibly just some random bad hardware.
>>
>> In regards to your thoughts of a install issue, he has spent a lot of
>> time with sol ark reviewing everything. Loads, wiring, they have been
>> monitoring all the data, photos, video etc with everything coming up
>> correctly installed, wired, and loads.
>>
>> this system is an upgrade for an older XW ( 6kw units) system which
>> worked fine. The customer wanted better monitoring, more kw, expansion
>> capabilities and newer tech.
>>
>> Weird
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sep 29, 2022, at 9:50 PM, pieter offgridenterprises.org via
>> RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>
>> We have dozens of Solark based installs and have had excellent results.
>> All of our system have multiple parallel Solark inverters and have operated
>> with out issues. On the rare occasion that we had commissioning questions
>> our experience with Solark technical support has been outstanding, they
>> have by far the best technical support in the industry. Although Solark
>> helped design the system in question I suspect that there must be some
>> finer points that were not shared with Solark, a load side wiring problem
>> or perhaps an installation error that is causing the repeated failures. I
>> suggest that your friend gets a fresh set of eyes on the system and look
>> for that oversite we have all made and just can’t seem to see it on our own.
>>
>> Pieter Huebner
>>
>> Off Grid Enterprises
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org> *On Behalf Of *Jerry Shafer
>> via RE-wrenches
>> *Sent:* Thursday, September 29, 2022 10:25 AM
>> *To:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> *Cc:* Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarage01 at gmail.com> <jerrysgarage01 at gmail.com>
>> *Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] sol ark reliability question
>>
>>
>>
>> Wrenches
>>
>> Solark issues, I have them living off grid, 3 phase and grid tied back
>> up, both AC and DC coupled with only one intermittent comms issue, does not
>> seem to have any more issues than OB and less than Schnieder, all are
>> connected to Fortress 18.5's or Blue Planet BMS interface seems hardy,
>>
>> Would be good to know what issues he is having to accurately help
>>
>> Jerry
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 29, 2022 at 7:01 AM jay via RE-wrenches <
>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I’ve got a question about how many folks are having issues with sol-ark
>> products?
>>
>> the reason i ask is that i’ve got a friend, a good competent installer (
>> well versed in OB, Schneider, magnum)  who’s had continuing nightmares with
>> them.
>>
>> he’s got 2 systems each on is a stacked pair of 12kw units, both offgrid.
>>
>> each system was designed by sol-ark, meaning the design was approved by
>> them for the loads/solar etc.
>>
>> He’s been through 7 MCU swaps.
>> He’s been through a field call required because the over the air firmware
>> update caused the inverters to go into 50hz and for some reason that isn’t
>> fixable via the web.
>> He had an inverter that didn’t work correctly out of the box.  They
>> charged him $2500 deposit for a replacement.
>>
>> Then they charged him $1500 to fix the inverter he sent back under
>> warranty.  Thats right $1500 to fix a warranty which they agreed was a
>> warranty issue.
>> Hes not going to pay but this $1500 has been going on a while.
>>
>> The inverter they sent to replace the broken one had a older MCU firmware
>> so wouldn’t stack and it took tech support way to long to figure that out
>> then they had to send him a new MCU…...
>>
>> And the list goes on.
>>
>> But Im asking, is this poor guy just an anomaly or will anyone else chime
>> in about issues?,
>>
>> Because at this point I have no desire to install one given his
>> experiences
>>
>> Jay
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Chris Sparadeo


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